Bengaluru being the evolving hub for the startups and the city is the home for 45 of the country’s 112 unicorns, according to a report presented by the Department of Electronics, IT, BT, and S&T, Government of Karnataka. The Bengaluru Innovation Report 2024 depicted that as a dynamic innovation hub, the city fosters groundbreaking advancements in fields like artificial intelligence, biotech, and fintech.

Bengaluru has generated a thriving start-up ecosystem backed by premier IT companies, research institutes, and capital allocators. This is driving economic growth and technological development.

According to Priyank Kharge, minister for the department of electronics, IT, BT, and rural development and Panchayati Raj, Karnataka government, “Karnataka is home to over 14,000 DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) registered startups and more than 4,000 active tech startup investors. The presence of 45 tech unicorns further cements its reputation as a premier hub for technology and innovation.”

The state government has launched various initiatives to support startups throughout their journey. The Elevate programme, focusing on idea-to-proof-of-concept, has awarded grants up to Rs 50 lakh to over 980 startups, with special attention to women entrepreneurs and deep tech solutions. Other initiatives include Kitven Funds and the Beyond Bengaluru Cluster Seed Fund, addressing diverse financial needs. The NAIN initiative establishes 50 innovation centres in tech institutions outside Bengaluru to foster student-led projects.

Additionally, efforts like the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission and Beyond Bengaluru aim to develop IT hubs statewide.

He also mentioned that, there are more than 80 accelerators and incubators in the state. There is support from 1,565 venture capital funds, 17,164 angel investors, and 2,256 corporate venture funds actively investing in these ventures.

Prashanth Prakash, chairperson of the Startup Vision Group for the Government of Karnataka and partner at venture capital firm Accel, emphasized that, Bengaluru hosts R&D centres of major tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google. He said the city has produced successful unicorns such as Zerodha, Cred, PhonePe, Flipkart, and Razorpay.

He quoted, “The city is the GCC (global capability centre) capital of the world, with the highest concentration of GCCs in India, over 2.1 million software engineers, and contributing to more than 38 per cent of the nation’s IT exports.”

The Department of Electronics, IT, BT, and S&T, Government of Karnataka, also organised a special felicitation ceremony for the winners of Elevate - a flagship Grant-in-Aid programme of the department. Nearly 263 startups were invited as part of these programmes for the felicitation ceremony. They have been funded a total of Rs. 60 crore by the Department of IT-BT of the Government of Karnataka. About 47 of these firms are led by women entrepreneurs, and 119 startups hail from Tier-II and Tier-III cities in the state.

The startup winners are enthusiastically building innovative technologies across various emerging sectors like healthcare, biotechnology and agriculture.
The department has supported 983 startups with a committed fund of Rs 224.06 crore as seed funding. The initiative has attracted women entrepreneurs, comprising 25% of participants. Additionally, 30% of entrepreneurs hail from Tier-II and Tier-III cities in Karnataka.